Fork in the Road...ECUADOR (17-18th Oct)

Feet still firmly planted in the city of Quito; I continued to check in on Quito's Jardín Botánico, hoping for new migrant arrivals from the north. I stopped in twice over the weekend, and enjoyed some migrant watching in the shadow of the Andes, visible in the near distance behind the park. This is presumably, where much of these birds will end up, on the forested slopes of the Andes.

Swainson's Thrushes had clearly come in en-masse, with their constant liquid calls resounding around this small park. Some half a dozen or more birds were present, taking full advantage of the fruiting trees around the park entrance, which were associating with the "mystery" elaenias in the same tree (Lesser or White-crested Elaenias being the likely contenders). While scratching my head over the elaenias, something every visiting guide there has done this year, a larger bird dropped suddenly into the same tree, quickly plundered the berry crop and left. Thankfully, on this occasion I got a clear and undeniable view of the bird, and my lifebird finally fell to me after three visits to look for it: Large Elaenia. Unfortunately, I was so stunned that it had finally graced me with a clinchable view, I forgot to raise my camera!

Other migrants over the weekend were at least 5 Eastern Kingbirds (one here is photographed with the Andes visible in the backdrop), a few Snowy-throated Kingbirds, 2 Fork-tailed Flycatchers, 1 Scarlet and 1 Summer Tanager, and several Western Wood-Pewees. Overhead a party of 3 White-collared Swifts screamed past.

For boreal migrants, that was about that, although a large bird causing havoc among the local Great Thrushes, turned out to be a remarkably confiding immature White-rumped Hawk, and the first time I had managed to get a decent look at this plumage, or indeed this hawk so close up. This bird had surpised all by turning up in Quito a week or more earlier and had been hanging around, perhaps in the knowledge a crop for migrant birds were there for the taking?!

With a trip Down Under beckoning, I was relieved to finally get a proper sight of the Large Elaenia, in the full expectation the bird would have moved on by the time of my return to Quito (which it was)!

City Siskins...ECUADOR (14th Oct.)

A repeat visit to Quito's Jardín Botánico was needed, pre-office work, in order to try and track down that elusive Large Elaenia. Unfortunately though, that bird, once again, eluded me, in spite of recent sightings confirming its continuing presence. Migrants were thin on the ground on this day, although I did get several Swainson's Thrushes, some Eastern Kingbirds for my efforts, and an unphotogenic Fork-tailed Flycatcher. A number of confusing smaller elaenias were also present in the park, which have had all visiting birders scratching their heads; an educated guess says they should be White-crested Elaenias, although they completely lack white in their crests, and so Lesser Elaenia has been touted too. Unfortunately, the birds (at least three have been present), have remained silent, and largely unpresponsive to playback of all elaenia recordings! The same immature White-rumped Hawk that had been around for a while this autumn circled low above the park. 

My best efforts on this day, were though rewarded with some nice shots of a local group of Hooded Siskins (a resident bird in this part of the Andes), which made the trip very worthwhile all the same.

Next up, was a final return to the gardens before a trip to a whistlestop trip to Australia curtailed my Andean birding for a short time...

Urban Birding (in the tropics)...ECUADOR (12th Oct.)

With my next tour leading job some time away, I found myself marooned in the city (Quito) for a while. However, the month of October is a month of migration, even in a city like Quito, nestled in the Andes of South America. In this season birds from the boreal north move south for the winter, with some of them ending up in Ecuador.

In recent years local ex-pat birders like Roger Ahlman, and Ecuadorian birders have proved the worth of a small park in Quito, as a notable migrant hotspot. While it does not compare with the legendary migrant traps of North America like High Island and Cape May, as there is really only a trickle of birds coming through here, it has still managed to turn up plenty of birds, with Roger at least, having recorded in excess of an impressive 120 species in the Quito Botanic Gardens over the past few years. Thus, when I found myself, "tied to the city for a while", I thought I would get involved and check out what was happening there. The park provides a kind of oasis in the central, Inter-Andean Valley, which Quito is largely located within. In general, relative to the rest of the country (which is mega-diverse, boasting 1600 species or so), the dry and semi-arid central valley is depauperate for birds, in comparison to the wet west and east facing slopes of the Andes. Therefore, in terms of species diversity, Quito, is relatively low, with the following species making up a very predictable standard day list in the city, Eared Dove, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Great Thrush, Sparkling Violet-ear, Black Flowerpiercer, and Black-tailed Trainbearer. All of these birds were in evidence within the gardens that day, but I was hoping for something less predictable, and I got it...

Earlier in the week, another local birder (Dusan Brinkhuizen), along with Roger had found a major rarity in the gardens, Large Elaenia. This fuelled by reason for visiting, for this would be a lifebird too, just minutes from my apartment in the city. Having looked earlier in the week to no avail (and bumped into Robert Ridgely no less in doing so), I opted to return, although on this occasion, more typically, I found myself birding the gardens alone. The sky was threatening to unload a heavy downpour, and I enjoyed a fantastic afternoon's city birding. After a brief brush with a large and burly Elaenia, presumably the Large Elaenia, which I was not satisfied enough to count on that view, other migrants trickled their way on to my Quito list. An adult male American Redstart, presumably on his way to the foothills of the Andes, flitted around the trees; then a flycatcher dropped into view, which I was sure was not regular here, a Streaked/Sulphur-bellied type. On snapping off a reel of shots and checking the literature when I got home, along with a few nervous phone calls to Nick Athanas who was at home, I nailed it as a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, a good bird for Quito. (When birding migrant traps with limited history like this one, all bets are off and all possiblities must be considered to be on the safe side!)

As I got off the phone to Nick, immediately another flycatcher landed in front of me. Noting with the naked eye that it was from the extremely troublesome myiarchus group, I groaned inside, at the prospect of another identification conundrum. However, on clapping my bins on it, I was relieved to see it was a Great Crested Flycatcher, almost the only distinctive one in the group that I could have expected here, and another good find! While not a migrant, the suddenly vigilant nature of the normally placid Great Thrushes on site prepared me for an immature White-rumped Hawk that came whipping through the park, but left empty-handed, probably due to the keen eyesight of the resident thrushes more than anything. All the other migrants seen that day of note were also flycatchers, with a Snowy-throated Kingbird, several Western Wood-Pewees (identified on call), and an unidentified Empidonax flycatcher, which zipped off before giving me a clear look, and also remained silent, leaving me wanting more. The final drop in, was a super Fork-tailed Flycatcher to complete a fascinating few hours dominated by migrant flycatchers. 

However, while migrant watching, I was "photobombed" by a hulking male Golden-bellied Grosbeak (a resident Andean bird), and I was only too please to shoot it, before the rain came crashing down and I abandoned ship!

A few more runs of Urban Migrants was followed by the briefest of trips Down Under, all to come very soon....